Saturday, February 1, 2014

Almost Tricia Yearwood's Lemon Meringue Pie

There's nothing like the treadmill accompanied by the cooking channel, eh? It's like mentally nullifying the run, as you sweat. But hey, as long as I stay on it for a few miles… well you know. I wasn't in the mood for "Law And Order", so Tricia it was. This is her second appearance on CMI. You might recall my trying her No-Bother Turkey?
I digress...

Here's the link to her Magic Lemon Meringue Pie.
Here's how I tweaked it:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Crust: My own, rather than the overly sweet graham cracker crust:
2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, mixed in bowl. Combine ½ cup canola oil with 5 tablespoons icy water; add all at once to flour and stir quickly.
Instead of rolling dough, I just pressed about ⅔ of it into a 10-inch tart pan, pierced the bottom a few times and pre-baked for 10 minutes, while mixing the…

Filling: 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk, juice of 2 lemons, grated zest of 1 lemon, 3 large egg yolks (save whites), all whisked together and poured into warm pie shell. Topped with…

Meringue: I added an extra egg white and beat 4 whites with ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar, till somewhat stiff. Then continued beating, gradually adding a scant ¼ cup sugar till very stiff peaks formed, to be spread on filling right to edges of pan, sealing it. Into the oven for about 20 minutes. 

TO NOTE: Be happy that filling layer is thinnish, 'cause there's a boatload of calories in the s-c milk. The per-slice count isn't too terrible. Also, it cooks quickly; no one wants to risk consuming raw eggs. It packs plenty of flavorBe sure to cool pie on a rack and then refrigerate for a few hours before serving.

Easy as pie :-) and deeee-licious!